


to bury a friend.

by kaoiyia



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Drama, Family Feels, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Blue Lions Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Sad Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, Sibling Love, Tragedy, Wakes & Funerals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:40:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24723949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaoiyia/pseuds/kaoiyia
Summary: Her eyes are closed – she looks like she's dreaming, bedded on virgin-white sheets. The red of her dress spills across it like boiling blood, tangling with icy locks.Dimitri's trembling fingers brush against her crown, horns an immortal sign of her everlasting courage.Edelgard had been a star, one that burned too brightly, doomed to die too soon.Dimitri buries Edelgard on a cloudy afternoon.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd & Edelgard von Hresvelg
Comments: 12
Kudos: 52





	to bury a friend.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone,
> 
> this is a coping piece. I lost three, beloved pets over the course of three weeks. However, our cat, we believed to be dead, returned to us a few days ago. So I started writing this when I was sad and finished it when I was happy. 
> 
> I love Edelgard's and Dimitri's relationship a lot, there is so much to explore. Also, I really love Dimitri so this story came to me rather easily.

The soil is heavy on the shovel’s pit. Dimitri huffs, putting more weight on the handle. The screws gride. Beneath him, the waves crash against the unyielding rock.

Faerghus’ earth is unrelenting, ironed by harsh winters and barren springs. Back when Dimitri didn’t hear voices or shivered at the thought of losing a friend, he used to trip over his feet, ripping open his pale skin. Ever so often, Glenn tended his wounds, a patient smile on his face.

Dimitri stops; the thoughts of Glenn too heavy on his shoulders. He doesn’t hear his voice anymore, but his presence is steady and cold in the back of his mind. Dimitri looks up into the aquamarine sky, tinted by pink streaks. The remains of Glenn’s body are buried on the grounds of the Fraldarius estate, beneath an oak.

He turns around, shoulders sinking. The handles of the coffin gleam golden in the low evening sun. With a pounding heart, he wonders if they’d have liked each other, in another, less cruel universe.

He’s alone out here, at the shores of Faerghus, where the icy winds of the north clash with rugged cliffs. It’s half a day’s ride from Fhirdiad, not too far away for them to depart at the first peeks of sunlight, when the dew still dripped from the leaves and mist still lingered across the fields.

Edelgard loved the sea. ‘It makes me feel like I can fly,’ she used to say, eyes sparkling with childlike wonder; fingers eager to dip into the blue depths. She spent hours lying too close to the cliffs’ edges, body strumming with the whispers of a vast future, free from royal concerns and obligations. Dimitri always laid next to her, but he didn’t hear them, not like she did. He didn’t recognize a lot of things Edelgard recognized.

The pile of dirt next to Dimitri reaches his hip bones when he deems the hole deep enough. He turns around and his heart sinks at the scene before him. The coffin rests on the ashen grass, black wood against gray earth. He made it, from scratch, with his very own hands while El had been watching from the cold of her icy prison Mercedes had made for her.

His knees buckle and he sinks down next to it. Dimitri swallows, and his fingers tremble against the wooden cover. It creaks when he pushed it away. Dimitri holds his breath as it reveals more and more of her.

Her eyes are closed – she looks like she’s dreaming, bedded on virgin-white sheets. The red of her dress spills across it like boiling blood, tangling with icy locks. Dimitri’s trembling fingers brush against her crown, horns an immortal sign of her everlasting courage.

Edelgard had been a star, burned too brightly, doomed to die too soon.

Her face looks content, relaxed in her never-ending sleep, as if she’d wake up if Dimitri only said her name. Her lips are full, there is a small, white scar above her upper lip, curling around the curve of her lip. Dimitri stares at it, fingers arching to touch. Rays of light dance on her cheekbones, trailing across the valleys of her eyes and along the arch of her eyebrows. Dimitri’s hands clench around the edge of the coffin.

If he could revert time, he would. Back to the calm days at the monastery, back to the days where he’d only need to extend his hand to reach her. Instead, he’d spent his days being selfish.

Dimitri leans down, hair spilling around their faces like a curtain. His lips are trembling when they press against Edelgard’s frosty skin.

“I’m sorry, El.”

Dimitri would do everything to save her, her and her bleeding heart, wounded from countless, gruesome deeds she had to endure.

“You deserved kindness, Edelgard.”

Dimitri remembers them. Her cold, lifeless eyes, sparkling in the afternoon sun of that fateful day in late August. He had been too late, but his soul had arched at the idea of leaving her behind. But Edelgard wanted him to.

His fingers curl around her locks. “Why?” he whispers.

The silence around them is deafening. Sobs heave through his chest, burning in his lungs and Dimitri’s vision blurs. His hands catch his tears, Edelgard didn’t want them in her dying moments so he doubts she’d want them now. Edelgard was too proud for sympathy, too captured in her vision to admit weakness.

Dimitri stares down on her, tears dripping from his chin on the fur around his shoulders.

“I’m sorry, El,” he says again, “so, so, sorry.”

His hands shake when he closes the coffin. He exhales, long and deep, frozen in his position. Dimitri’s tears drop on dark wood and he bites his lips. He shouldn’t be crying, Edelgard wouldn’t want him to. The back of his hands feels rough when he rubs his eyes.

His arms span wide across the length of the coffin, his muscles not even bulk when he raises it from the ground. It’s as light as a feather and Dimitri’s heart clenches. The sea is roaring beneath them when Dimitri lowers her down. It’s like it’s crying, crying over the loss of a shining soul. When the coffin hits the ground, he doesn’t have the strength to get up. The weight of the entire world rests on the and he swallows past the lump in his throat.

Dimitri’s hands shake around the roses he’s holding. They’re crimson red, like Edelgard’s dress and her resolve. They’d been growing in Enbarr, unfazed by the massacre that was happening around them on that lovely August day. Their buds are closed, and Dimitri’s heart squeezes at the idea of Edelgard’s striking similarity to them.

Edelgard deserved more time, more ears willing to listen to her. Instead, she got nothing but cold stares and bewildered laughers.

Dimitri swallows. He accused her of terrible, hideous things she’d have never done if she’d been in her right mind. Did he push her forward? Did he cause her to become the monstrosity she eventually became back then?

He kneels down and places the roses on her coffin. Red to White, Crimson to Frost, Sun to Moon.

“I will give my best, Edelgard. I will. I promise it to you by the means of everything I am as I stand before you.”

Dimitri closes his eyes, pain obscuring his view.

“The least I can do is to attempt to make you proud if you should choose to look down upon me.”

The first shovelful of earth that hits the coffin sounds like cannon shots. Dimitri’s tears drip on the ground before him. Somewhere in the distance, the sun is setting, drowning everything in a velvet red, twirling through the strands of Dimitri’s cloak fur.

It’s Edelgard’s last goodbye, soft but bright like he remembered her. Dimitri swallows. Edelgard’s laugh rings through his ears, mixing with her horrible screams of agony. He winces. The earth piles up in front of him, pushing Edelgard further and further away from the world. As soon as the hole is filled, he lets go of the shovel like it burned his hand. It falls on the ground, clattering loud and jarring in his ears. His breath heaves through his lungs; he’s a drowning man, unable to carry on the wishes of his sister.

Dimitri looks at the horizon and sees Edelgard’s scarlet cloak, fluttering behind her as she strides down the halls of the monastery. It’s the seams of her dress, fluttering in the gentle winds of Enbarr, as she looks at him, desperate resolve flaming in her eyes.

Maybe, in another universe, he has been wiser, kinder. Maybe he would have had listened to her, or even reached out to her earlier, instead of pushing her away. Maybe things would have ended differently then. The mere idea sparks flutters soaring through his veins.

His steps are heavy and slow as he trails down the trail winding around the surrounding hills. At the edge of the cliffs, when the horizon starts to vanish behind gray blades of grass, he allows himself a last look on her grave. The clouds sway in the wind, and the light dances on their heads.

“Rest peacefully, Edelgard. I will do my best.”

When he turns around, there’s a warm and guiding presence in his mind, joining the others. Dimitri smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! If you had fun, please consider leaving kudos and comments! Thank you for your time!
> 
> I post short drabbles on [twitter](https://twitter.com/kaoiyia) and [tumblr](https://kaoiyia.tumblr.com), I'd love to see you over there! 
> 
> Stay safe and be kind.


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